Concentrations of impurity elements (analysis value) in a metal have been determined with a metal analysis instrument by carrying out arithmetic operations with a microcomputer according to a specific arithmetic operation program on detected value obtained by a detector. In such a metal analysis instrument, there is present noise due to high-frequency emissions or large electric currents handled therein. Consequently, data stored in a hard disk or the like may easily be destroyed. As a result, analysis value may involve errors due to faults in software such as the arithmetic operation program.
One of the measures which can be taken in such a case is to dispatch a developer's programmer in the field. Another corrective measure is to investigate the cause of the problem which requires debugging through telephone communications between the programmer and the user, with the programmer using the developer's metal analysis instruments at the programmer's site to reproduce the problem in question.
However, dispatching a programmer requires a significant amount of expenditure and time. When the trouble is reproduced on the metal analysis instrument at the programmer's site, precise information cannot be communicated over the telephone, and it is difficult to reproduce the subtleties of the situation in detail. Further, after a remedy has been made, a medium for storing the software must be sent, thus incurring a transportation expenditure. Consequently, such measures as described above are not economical and are not capable of providing quick fixes for bugs.